Washington, D.C, October 4 — Advocacy groups the American Immigration Council and the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) filed an emergency motion on October 4, seeking to enforce a 2021 court ruling (in the Garcia Ramirez v. ICE case) that prevents ICE from illegally locking up unaccompanied immigrant children in adult detention centers once they turn 18.
The Council and NIJC filed the motion after multiple documented cases emerged in which ICE resumed its practice of seeking to transfer immigrant children who entered the U.S. alone into adult detention facilities once they turned 18, in violation of the permanent injunction in the Garcia Ramirez case.
“The permanent injunction made clear that ICE cannot automatically transfer young people to adult detention centers simply because they have turned 18,” said Michelle Lapointe, legal director at the American Immigration Council. “Locking up these young people in ICE jails rife with overcrowding and hazardous conditions, and far from their support systems, does nothing to make our communities safer, it only inflicts more harm on vulnerable youth.”
When children under 18 enter the United States alone, they are placed in shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and are generally released to family members or other vetted sponsors in the U.S., not to ICE detention centers. These policies recognize that children need care and support, not punishment.
Under the Garcia Ramirez court ruling that resulted from yearslong litigation by the NIJC and the Council and a lengthy bench trial, once these youths turn 18, ICE must consider placement in the least restrictive setting, like an alternative-to-detention program, rather than throwing them into immigration detention.
“ICE’s attempt to expand the detention of immigrant youth is a direct violation of the courts, which explicitly requires the agency to consider safe, less restrictive alternatives to detention,” said Mark Fleming, associate director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “We will not allow the government to turn back the clock and return to a practice that the courts have already found unlawful.”
The number of people in immigration detention has reached record highs, fueling overcrowding and abusive conditions. The Trump administration is weaponizing the threat of prolonged confinement in these dangerous facilities to coerce people into giving up their legal rights and accepting deportation. This pressure campaign is being reinforced by new policies such as a program offering financial payments to unaccompanied youths if they agree to leave the country.
“The law is clear: ICE must use safe, less restrictive alternatives, not default to jailing young people indefinitely,” said Marie Silver, managing attorney for NIJC’s Immigrant Children’s Protection Project. “These kids came here seeking safety and hope. They deserve a chance to be free and reunify with family and community members, attend school, and work with their lawyers to have their day in court. Trapping them in dangerous and degrading conditions in immigration detention is compounding their trauma in a cruel and unnecessary way.”
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